Cigarette tray



Feb. 4, 1969 w. PIFER ETAL CIGARETTE TRAY Sheet Filed Sept. 21, 1966 FIG. 2

INVENTORS Lewis W. Pifer By Robert T, A Pifrzr ATTORNEY Feb. 4, 1969 L. w. PIFER ETAL 3,425,581

- CIGARETTE TRAY Filed Sept. 21, 1966 Sheet 2 INVENTORS Lewis W. Pifrzr By Robert T. A. Pifer AT TOR NEY United States Patent 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An open top tray for handling loose cigarettes in a cigarette factory and of the type having a removable front lid incorporates a pair of fasteners at the top corners of the lid which mate with the top front corners of the end Walls of the tray to act as the sole means of supporting the lid and such that the end wall corners are reinforced and the end walls prevented from bending when thrown or dropped in the factory.

In the manufacture of cigarettes the loose cigarettes immediately after manufacture are placed in what is called a tray. The tray, as illustrated by various drawings forming part of this application, consists of a normally vertically positioned rectangular box having an open top, integral back and end walls, a removable lid forming the front wall and a slidable bottom wall. The cigarettes are loaded into the tray with the bottom Wall in place and the front lid removed. The front lid is then installed and the cigarettes are transported in the tray to the packaging area and held in the tray at the packaging machine. When ready to be packaged the bottom wall member is removed which allows the loose cigarettes to fall out of the tray into the packaging machine. The empty tray is then ready to be refilled with freshly manufactured cigarettes.

The manufacture of cigarettes is carried out in such volume and at such a fast rate of production that the workers and machine operators tend to work in whatever manner leads to fast produciton. Consequently, the empty as well as the full trays are mishandled and the empty trays and lids are frequently bodily thrown across production areas. The trays are usually made of aluminum, steel or other metal. Consequently, the parts of the tray become bent and the end walls are particularly susceptible to being bent inwardly when subjected to a hard fall. Once the end walls become bent inwardly the front lid is difiicult to maintain in position because of the nature of the conventional fastening means employed to releasably hold the front lid on the tray. In particular, once an end wall becomes bent inwardly beyond a certain amount the conventional means for fastening the lid to the end walls prevents the lid from being held in place or as sometimes happens, the lid is easy to jar loose and will allow loose cigarettes to fall out of the tray. Workers are also sometimes injured when the tray unexpectedly becomes disassembled.

Thus, the object of the invention is to provide an improved cigarette tray which can be roughly handled in service without substantially affecting the ability of the lid to be held on the tray.

Another object is to provide an improved cigarette tray having improved cooperating fastening means located on the end walls and lid respectively such that the end walls are either prevented from being bent inwardly or if bent inwardly are not unfastened from the lid.

The foregoing and other objects will be apparent from the description and the drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a cigarette tray following the invention and with the front lid removed.

FIGURE 2 is similar to FIGURE 1 but with the front lid installed.

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of one corner portion of an assembled tray and showing a typical prior art fastening means and in dashed lines the typical position of a bent end wall.

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of a plate and stud member employed in a first embodiment of the invention.

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of the assembly of the first embodiment.

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of a plate and band member employed in a second embodiment of the invention.

FIGURE 7 is a perspective view of the assembly of the second embodiment.

FIGURES 8, 9 and 10 are perspective views of the assembly of third, fourth and fifth embodiments, respectively.

The drawings and description are now referred to in more detail and with reference to the tray as best seen in FIGURES 1 and 2. The typical cigarette tray, represented by the numeral 10, includes a back wall 11 and integral therewith a pair of opposed end walls 12 and 13. A bottom wall strip member 14, which is slidable as indicated by the arrows in FIGURE 1, is held in a pair of cast metal fittings 15, 16 in which bottom wall 14 is loosely mounted. A lifting handle 20 is mounted on back wall 11 and a pair of carrying handles, only one of which is shown, are mounted on the respective end walls 12, 13 as indicated at 21.

The front wall of the tray 10 is provided by a front lid member 25 whose edges 26 are rolled over a wire member 27 for the purpose of adding rigidity and strength to the lid. As previously mentioned, it is necessary that front lid member 25 be removable from the main body of the tray 10 and it is therefore necessary that suitable fastening means be provided to allow the front lid member 25 to be quickly installed and removed when tray 10 is in service.

The invention is primarily directed to the fastening means employed to releasably retain the front lid member 25 on the main body of tray 10 and such fastening means must obviously be economical to manufacture because of the great number of cigarette trays employed in cigarette factories. Further, the fastening means must be designed to withstand extreme abuse since as previously mentioned cigarette trays are frequently tossed and given hard jolts. In FIGURE 3 there is shown a typical corner assembly of a typical prior art tray and a typical prior art fastening means which includes a headless stud 30 mounted on a plate 31 which in turnis mounted on the top front corner of end wall member 12. As further illustrated in FIGURE 3, the prior art fastening means also normally includes an L-shaped bracket member 32 which is secured by rivets 33 or the like to the front lid member 25 and is bent around the lid edge 26 to form a slotted fastening section 34 which mounts on the headless stud 30. Bracket 32 also normally requires employment of a reinforcing plate 36 which is welded or otherwise secured to section 34 and which effectively serves to add rigidity to bracket 32 as well as lend some protection to the end wall such as end wall 12 shown in FIGURE 3. Bracket 32 and the reinforcing plate 36 are formed with an inverted U-shaped slot as indicated at 35 and in assembled relation, as in FIGURE 3, the respective lid and end wall plates 31, 36 are flush and the U-shaped slot 35 accommodates the headless stud 30.

The dashed lines 37 in FIGURE 3 represent a typical position to which an end wall such as end wall 12 may be bent inwardly when the tray 10 is dropped with considerable force and strikes the end wall. Once the end wall has been bent in this way it will be observed that the headless stud 30 is moved to such a position that it cannot engage the slot 35 in bracket 32 and thus the front lid member 25 cannot be retained in position. Further, the end wall such as end wall 12v in FIGURE 3 may be bent to a lesser degree but sufficient so that if the front lid member 25 slides to the right or left relative to the main body of the tray one or the other of the brackets 32 will become dislodged from its respective headless stud such as stud 30 and the front lid member 25 will be in a position to drop off and thus spill any cigarettes that might be contained in tray 10. The conventional fastening means thus fails to overcome the end wall bending problem and also requires employment of the reinforcing plate such as plate 36.

Referring next to FIGURE 4, the invention, in its first embodiment, is directed to employment of integral platestud member 40 having a plate section 41 and a stud portion 42 with a head 43. The head 43 is substantially enlarged with respect to the body of the study 42. As further illustrated in FIGURE 5, the plate section 41 is rigidly secured to the end wall 12 by riveting, welding or equivalent means, neither being shown. A mating bracket 44 is secured by rivets 45 or the like to the front lid member 25 and a further fastening portion 46 of bracket 44 is provided with an inverted U-shaped slot 47 which receives the body of the stud 42 such that the head 43 resides outside the slot 47. The head 43 is made with a substantially larger diameter than the width of the slot 47. Thus, in the event the tray 10 is dropped or thrown and lands on the end wall such as end wall 12 bending of the end wall is limited since the head 43 cannot pass through slot 47. This construction thus insures that end wall 12 cannot be bent except to a rather modest degree and further insures that so long as lid 25 can be positively engaged by means of stud 42 residing in slot 47, the operator can be assured that the front lid 25 will not become dislodged in service. A further advantage which has been discovered is that the type of construction described in connection with FIGURE 5 also allows elimination of the previously employed reinforcing plate 33 shown in FIGURE 3.

A second embodiment of the invention is illustrated by FIGURES 6 and 7 in which the plate section 55, comparable to plate section 41 of FIGURE 4, mounts a U- shaped band 56. Plate section 55 is rigidly secured to the end wall 12 as illustrated in FIGURE 7 and a modified bracket 57 is secured by means of rivets 58, or the like, to the front lid member 25. Bracket 57 includes a tip portion 59 which mounts within the band 56. With respect to this second embodiment, it will again be seen that the end wall, such as end wall 12, is limited in the amount it can be bent and so long as the front lid member 25 is mounted on the respective end walls, the operator can be assured that the front lid 25 will not become dislodged in service.

In FIGURE 8 there is shown a third embodiment in which in place of a single stud there is employed a pair of studs 50, 51 having respective enlarged heads 52, 53. It will, of course, be understood that the heads 52, 53 are of substantially large diameter with respect to the slot 47 and the general operation of such fastening means is similar to that described in connection with FIGURE 5.

Various trays utilize clear plastic lids to which the invention readily adapts. In FIGURE 9 there is illustrated a fourth embodiment for this purpose and in which there is shown a front lid 60 of plastic or the like. Front lid 60 has an L-shaped bracket 61 mounted by means of rivets 62 or the like to front lid member 60. Mounted on the inside leg 63 of bracket 61 by means of rivets 64 or the like is a modified bracket 65. Bracket 65 has a tip portion 66 which receives the enlarged head 43 of the stud 42 and which acts to limit movement of the end wall as previously explained.

A still further modification of the invention is illustrated by FIGURE 10 in which a front lid 70 and bracket members 71 have been die cast thereby forming an integral front lid assembly 72. This has the advantage that the lid and brackets may be manufactured as an integral unit.

In summary, it can be seen that in all of the various embodiments described, each end wall is restricted in the amount it can bend. Thus, even though the trays are subject to abuse, the release of the lid from the tray or the misalignment of the lid and tray is prevented.

Having described the invention, what is claimed is:

1. In combination with a cigarette tray of the type having an open top, integral vertically oriented back and opposed end walls, a slidable horizontally oriented strip bottom wall and a vertically oriented front lid Wall overlapping said back, end and bottom walls, an improved fastening means for enabling said front lid wall to be releasably supported on and for substantially reinforcing the top front corners of said end walls, said fastening means being the sole means for securing and supporting said lid wall in its said overlapping position, including a first integral fastener member integrally secured to the outer face and top front corner of each said end wall and a second integral fastener member secured to the outer face and each respective top front corner of said front lid wall and being bent in a substantially L-shape, said members each having singular flat plate portions adapted to reside in flush engagement, said second member having a vertical and open bottom slot in its plate portion and said first member having outwardly extending means integral with its plate portion for engaging said slot when lowered downwardly thereon and for positively locking said plate portions in a manner requiring upward lifting of said second member to effect disengagement of said lid wall and effective to prevent relative motion between said plate portions and disengagement of said lid wall when either said end wall is bent inwardly.

2. In the combination of claim 1 wherein said locking means comprises a stud and head member integrally secured to and extending perpendicular from the said plate portion of said first fastener member and in which the stud portion thereof is adapted to be received by said slot and the head portion thereof is substantially larger than said slot.

3. In the combination of claim 1 wherein said locking means comprises a U-shaped band integrally secured to and extending perpendicular from the said plate portion of said first fastener member and which is adapted to receive a flat tip portion formed by said slot in the plate portion of said second fastener means, lifting of said tip portion being required to effect said disengagement and said band being effective to support said lid wall.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 926,246 6/1909 Dorif 2203.94X

FOREIGN PATENTS 176,791 10/1961 Sweden.

932,974 4/1948 France.

461,012 6/1951 Italy.

771,776 4/1957 Great Britain.

GEORGE E. LOWRANCE, Primary Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 

